Assassin in the Wind
by Kuyeng13-The Heart Logos
Summary: The Flower blowing gracefully in the wind". That was what she was. Kuyeng meant The Flower blowing gracefully in the wind, and so that is what she became. Sidestory to Life after Death and Good Soldier, slight romance, squint to see it.


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**Disclaimer:**I do not own Guild Wars, again my characters are _mine _but there are higher ups o.o

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_The flower blowing gracefully in the wind…_

That was what she was. Kuyeng meant the Flower blowing gracefully in the wind, and so that is what she became.

Ever since she was little Kage had talent of being able to hit things with frightening accuracy. Everything about her was accurate. Her eyes where precise, she could see details from more than 8 yards away, her ears where sharp, she could hear things from her room (even if all the doors and windows where shut and being a Kurzick this meant that everything was made of stone and dead wood). She could hear what her parents whispered about in their room, while she was in hers. Her sense of smell was sensitive; she could smell individual herbs (although she wouldn't be able to always identify them). Her sense of touch sensitive, the brush of a strand of hair made her tense like a spring. And although she had never explored her sense of taste, she was sure that most people could not distinguish the difference between quail and chicken with one bite.

When she became an assassin she trained her stealth and honed her senses. She could disappear before you even noticed she had arrived. You could be dead by the time you realize she was in the room. She walked among shadows as if they where secret passages. Her precise eyes aimed at vital points and hit them dead center with frightening precision. She was nimble and flexible; she learned karate, allowing her to fight hand on hand. She learned how to throw knives and senbon, shruiken and kunai. The shadows became her allies making each strike of her butterfly blades critically acute. She could launch from her tense gait into a run and then into a sudden flip on the drop of a gold. She learned many arts, such as long-range assassination, how to poison, injure, or break the body with a touch. Kage learned arts that even most Necromancers have never learned. Most importantly, she learned to be indifferent. The life of assassin means indifference, wandering.

This is suiting to her name, is it not? She wanders, like a vagabond from place to place. She has no allegiance, no preferences, much like a soldier. However, although she is a tool on some occasions, she has thoughts and feelings.

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Like the flower that blows in the ever-fickle wind she also became a Warrior.

And thus she must undo all her training. The Warrior must not feel pain, to feel pain is to feel defeat at your heels. To an assassin pain means that something is wrong, that you have been hit and must be treated accordingly. To a Warrior pain should not be felt at all. A Warrior trains to endure, to constantly endure every staggering blow that hits them square in the chest, every rendering chop that lands on their shield, every jagged wound that rips through their flesh must be ignored. Perhaps this is why most warriors aren't very bright, they are ignorant. They ignore everything in order to forget the warning sensation of pain. Warriors are well protected of course, their heavy armor of hides and bone and steel and all sorts of various items protects them from whatever may cross their path. But it's large, clunky, loud, and heavy. Each one of those traits is a direct contradiction of what an assassin must be. Small, unseen, silent, light. A warrior must be commanded; the warrior must follow every instruction to the letter. An assassin must be free flowing; the assassin must be able to bend the rules to their whims.

The warrior is honorable, facing the opponent head on. There are rules, aim at these spots, fight honorably, and do not hurt citizens, elderly, infirm, women, and children. The assassin knows no such honor. The assassin uses a web of deceit and lies, shadows, smoke and mirrors to confuse the opponent and then appear from the dark and slice through the enemy with their thin knives. Do not mistake them for Mesmers, wily, confusing, pompous, Mesmers. While both use lies and trickery, illusions and bending of words the Mesmer has no true power. It is the Mesmer who relies on others to slowly feed them and then relies on the enemy to have a mind in order for their play to work. The assassin cares not whether there is a mind or not, the assassin kills what he is told to kill.

The warrior fights because he is told to, the assassin because he is paid to.

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Kage is the shadow. True to her name Kage slips into the shadows, watching and waiting. The ever-rigid shadows of the Kurzick trees in which she lives swallow her.

Kage has two sisters, Madilim Gabi (Dark Night), and Colbadra Ilaw (Blue Light). Like their names suggest they do not get along well, they did once she remembers, but not anymore. One seeks to kill the other, the other wishes to kill herself. Kage is indifferent, that is the way of the assassin, but Kage is also a warrior, warriors must care for who they defend. Kage tries to find a medium between the two she cannot in the rigid structure of Kurzick society. The stony limbs of dead trees encase her, keeping her strict to old rules. So Kage left for Kaineng.

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Immediately she is overwhelmed by the sheer loudness of the city. Screaming, yelling, chortling, guffaws, cries, sirens. Kage doesn't like her own Kurzick armor it's too _blah. _She finds someone who crafts "Exotic" armor, two days later she walks away with a brand new set of armor. A _present_ from Voldo the Exotic. The blades attached to the end of the greaves don't bother her at all; in fact, all the needles that cover the armor make her rather comfortable. People tend to avoid her, she likes her space, and they walk around her instead of bumping into her now, seeing as bumping into her now would rather hurt. Well it wouldn't be really bumping as much as it is skewering. The needles and blades are _very_ sharp.

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She gets hired several times, she kills various people, one day she could kill someone of this group, the next day she would kill someone from the group she was hired from the day before. It goes on for a long time. The Emperor Gang hires her and another assassin, _Dies Irae, _to kill a group of officials from the Earlship Gang. This takes time; she remembers Dies Irae's armor was purple. She didn't like purple; it wasn't a pretty shade in her opinion. Dies Irae liked his purple armor, he loved the color purple, in fact he had once told her that the color purple would look very beautiful on her and would match her eyes (which where a deep shade of blackish brown). She thought it an insult at the time, but she didn't retort. He bought her an ornament for her hair, which until this point she kept in a ponytail at the base of her neck. It was mother of pearl with green vines and pink flowers blooming across it, Kurzick Amber served as the border of the fan shaped ornament and as the centers of the flowers. The next day she wore her hair in a bun for the first time, the fan keeping it in place; she's never worn it another way since. She loves Dies Irae, and he loves her. He asks her to marry him, she accepts. She looks forward to this, but their assignment is over and she's already taken on another one. After this last assignment they will marry, retire, and move to Shing Jea. Kage looks forward to the peace.

She is hired by the Earlship Gang to take revenge; she is to kill one of the Emperor Gang's advisors. She draws up her mask and sets out to do this task, she does this quickly and efficiently, a shadow stirs behind her, without thinking (it was reflex by now) she throws a senbon at where the shadow's jugular should be. A sickening thud follows; the moonlight shines over the shadow, revealing the face of the stranger.

_Oh Lyssa…NO!_

She killed Dies Irae. She loved him, he loved her, and she killed him. What had she done?

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Kage escapes the scene of the crime. She sobs, cries, sitting on the rooftop or a building, she doesn't want to live without him. She draws her knife and stabs her heart. Or rather, she attempts to stab her heart, the Exotic armor is too thick, the steel is well crafted, and the knife is broken. She screams can she not join her lover in death? She rips off the steel plate, the needles stab at her skin, the claws at the ends of her greaves carve into her back spilling red liquid onto the roof. She sobs, and blacks out. She wakes up the next day in a hospital, someone found her. She looks at her back, a monk had healed her but there where thick scars from the gorges of her claws. She doesn't wear the Exotic armor; she puts on some Canthan garb and sells the Exotic. She joins the Emperor's assassination squad and gets some Imperial Armor. The armor is leather, it allows for blunt blows to go through, stabs as well (if they are strong enough and go straight and not slanted), but does not allow for wooden arrows or slashing damage. It is purple. She proudly walks around Kaineng in her new purple garb. Kage goes to their old room, she's thrown away her old knives, a set her parents gave her when she received her assassin's badge, and takes his. A set of Ebon Daggers, their lighter than her Butterfly Knives, and much less bulkier, but their stronger, faster, easier for slashing. She straps them to her hips and sets of to visit her sister Madilim in the Durheim compound. She earned herself a vacation.

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Madilim has been sent to Shing Jea. Great. She goes there next and sees the plot of land Dies and she would have been living on if not for that day. It almost brings tears to her eyes, almost.

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Kuyeng Kage is the flower floating gracefully in the wind of shadows. She wanders, sooner or later she will forget the pain lodged in her heart, and if she can't she'll ignore it. She's a warrior she doesn't remember pain. She's an assassin she feels it. Like a nomad who feels the urge to wander she cannot be tied down. Today she is in Shing Jea, perhaps tomorrow she'll be in the Marketplace, the day after the zu Heltzer House, and maybe after that she'll return to her duties as an Imperial Assassin. Maybe by then the Emperor would have some "trash" he needs "taken out". So Kage floats by, never really touching anything, fickle and swept away like and by the tide. Sometimes she looks back, sometimes and wonders what life would be like if she had not taken that one mission. But in the end she can only think of the here and now.


End file.
